For the longest time I have wanted to take my kids on a tour of the Cape Peninsula and while a drive would be good, a tour guide would make it perfect… Let me just say, that Cape Town has Red City Buses patrolling our streets every single day and every time we see one there are shouts of “Red City Bus…” “Red, City Bus…” When CitySightSeeing Tours, Cape Town, offered us tour tickets for a day out on their Red City Buses – it was literally a dream come true!!!

The Truth About Red City Buses

They are NOT Just for Tourists: Talk about being tourists in your own town… this was possibly the best outing we have done in our city forever. We got to learn so much about places in our city that we have never gotten round to visiting and we have added quite a few places to our wish list of places to visit. This was a great way to pack history, geography and social studies lessons about our city into one fabulous fun day of learning. Every socio-economic group was covered: homeless street dwellers, townships and the unimaginably rich and famous not to mention nature spots, historical sites, great food spots – really a bit of everything.

A Wintertime Outing, For Sure: I have always thought of these outings as summer outings, but we went on a cold wintry day. It was awesome, firstly they are heated, secondly even on the roof – where everyone really wants to be, you can be under shelter. My kids biggest worry beforehand were that there seats would be soggy… they weren’t. Comfortable plastic seats. And to be honest, while Cape Town can be wet, it never rains all day – there are always spells of no rain and we were able to spend all our bus time on the open top… except of course when all my kids wanted to try sitting under the cover. A big advantage on a wintry day: There was absolutely no chance of sunburn – a bit of a win if you ask me!!!

They are Affordable: My kids have begged to go on the “Red City Buses” forever and I have always thought that they would be, like many Cape Town tourist attractions, priced for tourists and not for locals. But I was wrong… they have fabulous specials all the time!!! And right now they have a totally fabulous special… running through the winter holiday school break and special holidays. Two free kids for every paying adult. Buy your tickets on-line and you get a significant discount too!!!…

City Traffic and Parking are NO Problem: There are stops at all the major sight seeing spots. Parking in the city is always an expensive nightmare… public transport is very often an expensive and unreliable alternative… but the Red City Bus takes you exactly where you want to be… you hop off visit and the next bus will be there waiting for you, to take you to the next spot when you are done.

Red City Buses Are Very Child Friendly: I tell you the truth, arriving somewhere with eight kids can have folk giving an audible/visible sigh, but on every bus that we climbed aboard, everyone was exceptionally friendly and welcoming and helpful. The drivers chatted, and were completely relaxed at waiting for eight kids to clamber on and off the bus at stops. The ushers chatted some more and checked that the kids were sitting and safe. They also checked that we all had all our bags and had left nothing in our seats as we left the bus.

There is a Audio Tour Guide: When you get your ticket at the start you receive your headphones. Plug them in and listen away… so easy, when you get off the bus you take your earphones with you and get on the next bus… whip your earphones out of your pocket and plug them in again for the next bit of the tour.

You Get to Choose Where You Stop: It is a good idea to plan your trip before you head out. You cannot possibly visit every stop on the tour in one day – so it is a good idea to decide where you are going to hop off and on in advance. Also, the audible tour guide is on the bus – so you get all the information, the history and interesting snippets, while you are on the bus. Some stops, that are really pricey, like the Aquarium or the Cable Car, you can choose to go to another day. However, some spots, like Kirstenbosch are free during the winter school holidays, and are therefore a definite stop for a rest and a play on the way. Just planning trip carefully means that you get all the advantages of the tour and you get to visit the places you want to visit to make your tour memorable.

And the se7en + 1th

This is One Exciting Outing: Every child receives a “Child Pack: a related activity book, stickers and a pack of crayons.”

My kids were thrilled to receive their gifts… but were far too excited on the journey to even look at them. This is not your typical road trip, your kids will not be bored or need entertaining… there is so much to look at and see on the journey and being on top of a double decker bus just adds to the view, the joy and the excitement.

Stop 1: The Two Oceans Aquarium The first stop and main ticket office is in the Waterfront next to the aquarium, there are Red Buses everywhere here… ready to fetch and carry and transport and entertain folk around the city…

Stop 6: Mount Nelson Hotel: And out of the top of town and headed for the suburbs… past our friend Table Mountain, covered in a winter duvet… District Six, between us and the harbour… Past Mostert’s Mill, Rhodes Memorial and the University of Cape Town… and on to Kirstenbosch…

Stop 8: Wine Tour of Constantia Valley: Groot Constantia is one of our favourite places to go for a walk – so this was a good spot for us to leap off and go on a walk through the vineyards for an hour. Lots of footprints in the vineyards… clearly the reason for all the signs saying: “No Picnics because of Baboons.”

Stop 9: World of Birds: We know our kids would want to spend an entire day at the World of Birds so we passed that by and headed down the hill…

Stop 10: Imizamo Yethu Township: We went past the township tour… we were headed for lunch…

Stop 11: Mariners Wharf: A quick wander around the Hout Bay Harbour and then Fish and Chips for lunch… and feeding the seagulls of course!!! Then down the Atlantic Coast and past the Twelve Apostles, Bakoven and in to Camps Bay…

Stop 12: Camps Bay: Another time we may well have stopped in Camps Bay for ice-creams… but instead we stayed on the bus… and watched the beaches fly by… along the winding road and past the homes of the extremely wealthy and famous…

Stop 13: President Hotel: The President’s Hotel is in Sea Point and this is a great place to stop and take an amble all the way along the Sea Point Promenade… a very fun and cosmopolitan part of Cape Town.

Stop 14: Sea Point: Lots and lots of apartment buildings in this area of Cape Town…

Stop 15: Winchester Mansions: A couple of stops along the promenade for when legs get just too tired!!! There are lots and lots of things to do along here… the Blue Train, Putt-Putt and ice-creams…

Stop 16: Green Point Lighthouse: Is right next to our favourite park, Green Point Park.

And that was us, a fabulous day out… really an epic day out. We highly recommend The Red City Bus Tour – for visitors to see the top spots around our city and for locals to get to know their city so much better. There are a number of tours available – the Mini Peninsula tour that we went on; and the Wine Tour through Groot Constantia; The tour of the City, brilliant for visiting all the local museums; The Canal tour and the Summertime Night Tour.

Oh Sue, Who knew how much fun this would be – we just loved it!!! Best way to see so many places in our city in one day – with an hour or two to stop off and play here and there along the way – totally brilliant idea!!! Hope your weather is warmer than hours right now!!! Lots of love!!!

Hay Sue… Here’s todays weather from Cape Town Weather… Wednesday: Partly cloudy, High of 14°C (Breezy) Winds from NNW at 15 to 25km/h (70% #cptRAIN ☂). And they mean really breezy and crisp and torrenting rain… bed is the best place!!! And I think I am shipping all our wet laundry up to you, it is never ever going to dry here!!!

Rikki, It was totally brilliant, you would not believe how much fun it was to do this – even on a cold wintry day!!! I think it might be one of Cape Town’s best kept secrets – who knew what a fun outing it would be for kids!!! Hope you have a great weekned!!!

[…] last year we discovered one of Cape Town’s best kept secrets when we went on a CitySightSeeing Tour all around the South Peninsula. This year we were invited to explore the City Centre. There is a lot to be said for being a tourist […]